Engaging with your prospects : Here come the chatbots.

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Engaging with your prospects : Here come the chatbots.

Talking machines. Once they were only science fiction. Today, you never know who’s on the other side of the line. And even in the real estate business many are already talking about chatbots. These nifty pieces of automated software can hold a basic conversation with prospects either on your website or a text thread. And there lies a big opportunity.

The window of opportunity for converting a prospect is smaller than ever. Research shows that responding to a new lead within five minutes of when they first reach out is crucial. Respond any later than that, and there’s a tenfold decrease in your odds of actually getting in touch with that lead.

“Instant access. That’s what customers want.”

Indeed, prospects and customers want access nowadays. Not just access, but instant access. A 2016 survey of 6,000 consumers in North America, Europe and Asia found that 9 out of 10 wanted to be able to use real-time messaging to have conversations with businesses.

Some already went with this trend. More and more real estate business is happening in Facebook Messenger. To that end, Facebook recently announced a new Messenger chat plugin, bringing the Messenger function to your website. When a customer starts a chat session with your business, he or she will see the same sort of Messenger chat window they’re used to from using the mobile app.

Does that mean that the robots are taking over? Rest assured : the relationship is where the real investment is made. So chatbots can maybe speed up those relationships, but will never replace them.

Any questions on how to implement chatbots and other forms of automation in your sales approach? Drop us a line. We -and no bot- will answer you with pleasure.